Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a drama about a young girl who inherits the powers to fight the demons that threaten the Earth. She lives in Sunnydale, California which happens to be the Hellmouth and must learn to master her powers while also trying to have some semblance of a normal life. The WB 1997 - 2001. UPN 2002-03.

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Season 5

Buffy can’t sleep and spends her nights hunting vampires. Giles thinks he is no longer needed and tells Willow he plans to return to England. Dracula approaches Buffy in the grave yard and says he came all this way to see her. The next night he visits her in her room and feeds on her. Dracula turns Xander into his minion while Riley and Giles go searching for him. They find his conspicuous castle but are detained while he and Buffy spend some time alone.

Through Dawn’s diary entries we hear her thoughts on life with the Scooby gang. Buffy and Giles head out to the magic shop and Dawn tags along. Once they discover a dead body, Dawn is left outside where a crazy man yells at her. Harmony is back in town with her own gang of vampires who plan to kill Buffy. They come to the Summers house while Xander and Anya are babysitting and Dawn accidentally invites Harmony in. Later she is kidnapped by the gang and Buffy has to go rescue her. Giles buys the magic shop.

Toth, a powerful and sophisticated demon is hunting Buffy. He uses a device (like a gun) and fires at her but hits Xander. The gang take Xander home and he seems fine. But the next morning another Xander wakes up in the same spot where he was shot. This other Xander is anxious and follows the first Xander around all day amazed at his ability to get a job, an apartment and charm people. The second Xander seeks out Willow’s help and eventually Giles works out that they are the same Xander just split into strong and weak parts. The two are put back together and Xander moves out of the basement. As he does Riley admits that he doesn’t think Buffy loves him.

Joyce collapses and while at the hospital Riley discovers that he has an abnormally fast heartbeat. Harmony is on the run from Buffy and seeks comfort with Spike. Graham and some Initiative men come to take Riley for surgery which will clean out the effects of the drugs which Maggie had put him on. Riley refuses and goes into hiding. Buffy makes the mistake of asking Spike to help. Instead he and Harmony kidnap the doctor and try to get the chip out.

While out slaying Buffy finds a Dagosphere, though she doesn’t know what it is. She takes it to Giles who is struggling to cope with the demand on the Magic Shop’s opening day. Joyce is still ill and so Buffy performs a spell to help her see other spells. There is nothing around Joyce but Dawn is flashing in and out of existence. Buffy heads back to the warehouse where she found the sphere and encounters a blonde woman with incredible strength.

Buffy tells Giles about Dawn and keeps a close watch on her. Riley feels left out and drowns his sorrows at Willie’s bar. The Beast recruits some Lei-Ach demons to kill the Slayer. Tara is feeling like an outsider in the group as her birthday approaches. Her family make a surprise appearance and remind her that she will soon turn into a demon. She casts a spell to prevent her friends from seeing demons which is particularly bad timing as the Lei-Ach demons arrive. Buffy fights them off with help from Spike and then they expose Tara’s father as a liar.

While fighting a typical vampire Buffy makes a mistake and ends up with her stake in her abdomen. Riley patrols for her and takes revenge while she asks Giles how previous Slayers met their ends. He can’t help but Spike can, having killed two himself. He tells her the story of his life and claims that all Slayers have a death wish. When Buffy rejects him he grabs a shotgun and intends to kill her. However his anger melts when he sees her crying over news that Joyce is going into hospital for a CT scan.

Joyce has a brain tumour and the biopsy results aren’t good. Buffy holds herself together and asks the Scoobies if a spell could save her. They think it unlikely and have bigger fish to fry when they realise that Glory popped by to buy some dangerous items. She transmogrifies a cobra that will be able to find the key. The snake finds Dawn and rushes back to tell Glory but Buffy chases after it and kills it. Riley is feeling increasingly out of the loop and lets Vampire Sandy bite him to see what it’s like.

Buffy and Dawn are taking care of Joyce in hospital when news comes that the operation will be in two days time. Joyce insists on going home till then. Meanwhile the Scoobies investigate a hollow meteorite which seems to have brought a demon to town. The mental patients of Sunnydale are its target and it follows the Summers home. Riley calls the military who help him track it down.

Joyce’s surgery is successful and Buffy spends an evening in with Riley to celebrate. Spike watches jealously from outside and follows Riley when he leaves in the middle of the night to go meet a vampire. Spike takes Buffy there and she is furious and upset at what she sees. The Scoobies worry about her when she sets fire to the now abandoned vamp-nest. Meanwhile Graham and his unit offer Riley the chance to come with them to South America. So he confronts her and tells her that at midnight he will leave. She is still angry and Xander comes to talk things through with her.

Buffy begins the process of getting over Riley while Spike practices his apologies for upsetting her. Giles heads to England to tell the Watcher’s Council about Glory and leaves Anya in charge of the store. Willow is around to help out too but annoys Anya by using supplies to do spells. They bicker during one of them and summon a Troll which then rampages around town. Olaf the Troll became one because of Anya and threatens to kill both women and Xander.

The Watcher’s Council arrive in Sunnydale demanding that Buffy complete a series of tests in order to prove she is worthy of their help with Glory. They interview her friends and test her training. Ben refuses to help Glory but she finds Buffy’s house on her own. She threatens to kill Buffy’s family if she doesn’t tell her where the Key is. Buffy takes Joyce and Dawn over to Spike’s Crypt and is then attacked by the Knights of Byzantium.

Buffy tells the Scoobies about Dawn and she notices that they are treating her differently. She runs out at night and breaks into the Magic Shop with Spike. She reads Giles’ notes and realises that she is the Key. She cuts herself and gets suspended from school. Then she runs away again and ends up at the hospital where Ben tries to comfort her. When she tells him that she is the Key he freaks out and tells her to run. He then morphs into Glory who asks Dawn if she knows where the key is.

Dawn spends some time with Spike and realises that he has feelings for Buffy. When Buffy confronts him he admits it and she is disgusted. Meanwhile Drusilla slaughters the passengers on a train and tells Spike that she wants him back. They knock Buffy out but then Spike ties them both up and tries to prove his love for Buffy by staking Dru.

A robot called April wanders around Sunnydale looking for her boyfriend Warren. She comes to the Scoobies’ attention when she throws Spike through a window. As they hunt down Warren, he is trying to run away with his new human girlfriend. Meanwhile Joyce prepares to go on a date.

Buffy can’t revive Joyce and Paramedics soon arrive to confirm that she has died. Buffy goes to school to tell Dawn while Willow and Xander fret over how to deal with it all. Everyone meets at the hospital (where the morgue is) and Dawn slips away to try and see the body.

Buffy makes funeral arrangements while Dawn feels isolated. Buffy waits after the service for Angel to arrive and comfort her. Dawn stays with Willow and Tara who discourage her from talk of resurrection spells. She pushes ahead anyway though getting a book from the Magic Shop and then further help from Spike. She casts the spell and accuses Buffy of not caring about Joyce and ignoring her.

Buffy is worried that she is becoming hardened and Giles suggests a quest to help her find answers. While they are away Spike’s Buffy-bot comes online and Xander and Anya see them having sex. Glory sends out her minions to discover who the Slayer protects and they bring Spike in for torture. The real Buffy returns and they save Spike just in time but he refused to give up the Key’s identity.

Buffy has to drop out of college and take responsibility as Dawn’s guardian. Willow tries to help but is rejected. When she complains to Tara they fall out too. Giles catches one of Glory’s minions at the Magic Box and he reveals that Glory thinks Tara is the key. Glory catches Tara and when she discovers that she isn’t the key she sucks her sanity out. Willow turns to dark magic and attacks Glory. Buffy intervenes in time to prevent her from being killed.

Buffy and Dawn only escape Glory when a truck hits her and she transforms into Ben. Buffy decides that they should all run and so Spike brings an RV round and they head out into the desert. On the road they are attacked by the Knights of Byzantium who wound Giles and crash the RV. The Scoobies hide out in an old gas station and call Ben to come and fix Giles.

Willow takes charge of the group, giving them orders while she heads into Buffy’s mind. Inside she finds the same thoughts repeating and tries to convince Buffy that she hasn’t killed Dawn yet. Glory prepares Dawn for her sacrifice but Ben’s personality begins to bleed over into hers and she struggles with guilt. Spike and Xander go to ask Doc for information on Glory and find more than they thought they would.

Buffy is determined not to kill Dawn even as Giles insists that it's necessary to save the world. Anya points out that they still have the Troll Hammer and the Dagosphere. They use them and the Buffy-Bot to distract and beat up Glory until she turns into Ben. Giles kills them but Doc cuts Dawn opening the portal. Buffy realises that by sharing Dawn's blood she can close the portal and that "Death is her Gift."